i am playing backgammon with my cousin, how do i win?

Answer 1

There are 2 basic strategies in backgammon. Running and blocking. Try to play occasionally with experienced players who know how to set up a good blockade. Try to keep your blots(singletons) where there's low odds that they will be bumped. In any game with dice, there's an element of luck. Good luck!

Answer 2

jsardi56 had an excellent answer.

I would add one comment referring to "odds".

As you may know, when you roll two dice, the most common number to come up (when adding the dice together) is seven.

However, in backgammon, because each die is treated as a separate move, it is actually the number six that comes up more often (in one form or another) than any other number (when you consider that the number six can come up as either a single die or as a combination of two dice). Therefore, planning by the odds needs to center around the number six, not the number seven.

This table will give you the number of ways each result has of coming up on a roll of the dice, either on one die individually, or as a sum of the two dice.

1 - 12
2 - 13
3 - 14
4 - 15
5 - 16
6 - 17
7 - 6
8 - 5
9 - 4
10 - 3
11 - 2
12 - 1

The numbers less than seven come up many more ways, because they can show up as a single die or as a sum of both dice.

While there are 36 possible outcomes in rolling two six-sided dice, each roll actually has 3 results...

(a) the number appearing on the first die
(b) the number appearing on the second die
(c) the total of the two dice.

That's why the above numbers total 108 (36 rolls x 3 results per roll).

So if you're playing the odds in terms of making your blots more difficult to hit, obviously the further they are away from your opponent's men, the more difficult it will be for your opponent to hit you.

You should also try to place two or more men on a spot which makes it easiest to hit your opponent.

Answer 3

By bearing off all those 15 men; do it before your cousin and you will win the game. The winner is the first to take off all the men:
1 point if you bear 15 out of 15, and the opponent 14 or less; 2 points if you bear 15 out of 15, and the opponent 0(zero);
3 points if you bear 15 out of 15 and the opponent none and has a man into the first player's inner board!

Answer 4

Hi there,
Are you wondering how to downoad for free GNU Backgammon? You can get it for free here: http://j.mp/1pUDXJ8

it's a perfectly working link, no scam!
This is an excellent game that is incredibly addictive for people of all ages, and which has the distinction of being freeware.
It's the best game.

Answer 5

You win if you can get all of your pieces off the board before your opponent does. Full rules can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backgammon#Rules